The Shame of the Hero
by Dark Lord Link
Summary: An interpretation of the fall of Hyrule. Link's POV, post-OOT/MM, pre-WW.


My name, is Link Nohansen Hyrule. Born, 842.

Murdered, 862.

My parents were the ruling members of the Hylian Royal Family, but they were killed at the hands of that accursed Gerudo king, Ganondorf. Oh, how I hate him. My mother, in her dieing breaths, got me as far as the Kokiri Forest before she died. It was there I was raised as a Kokiri boy, the boy without a fairy. I never was told of my true origins, I was led on to believe I was apart of the forest tribe.

They hated me. Just because I was different. Only one accepted me for me. On the eve of my 10th birthday, a nightmare wrecked havoc upon my dream scape, haunting me. I saw him, the man I came to hate for the rest of my miserable, mundane existence. I was awakened by a small orb of light, Navi as her name was. She said to me that I was summoned by the guardian spirit, the Deku Tree, the father of all life in the forests of the land. I didn't want to get up, that nightmare had left me tired, deprived me of my sleep. Yet the little creature with wings pestered.

I rose, yawning, and listened to her. I could say I never thought I'd depend on the fairy for as long as we were partners, but something in me told me she would be very important one day. She grabbed my long hat and pulled me in the direction of the Deku Tree's Meadow, she would have no other answer.

After proving that fool, Mido, wrong, I stood before the one being who watched over our home. He spoke of a desert man in black armor that had cursed him a fatal curse. He spoke of my nightmares, and how they had pervaded the land mercilessly. Then he opened his trunk and gave me the task of killing all the creatures that had been spawned from the desert man's curse.

He had to be joking. Surely, he did not expect me of all the Kokiri to last long? Apparently he did. With little sleep, I trudged through the dew-ridden bark until I had entered the chamber of interest. The heart of the Tree, it was there, I saw a most hideous and vile spider-like creature staring me down.

There was no way I could beat it. This was an impossible task.

Strangely enough, Navi told me how to. It surprised me when her advise worked. What didn't surprise me was that the spider had taken a huge chunk out of me when I hit it. It was a bloody mess, and all it's little larva's didn't help as they pounced and attacked me.

Damn those shrubs, they could have warned me about the odds at least. Although, I did figure they were pretty much against me.

Finally I threw down the arachnid and drove my Kokiri Sword up to the hilt in her eye. It began to disintegrate before me, some kind of blue fire undid its body and took all the larva with it.

Now, after nearly dieing in there, the Deku Tree tells me he's dieing and I was doomed before I started. So...what was the point of me getting bit so deeply in my chest? It turned out he was testing me. The spirit wanted me to go to Hyrule to meet their princess. Before he died, he gave me a jewel held dear by the tribe, and told me to show it to the princess. Fine, it seemed a simple enough task.

I was wrong on so many levels.

As soon as Saria healed me, she gave me her ocarina to use as a memento. I had to run, I could not stand the goodbye.

Once I reached the field and was on my way, night fall decided to come and suddenly, I'm running from a pack of walking children, all swinging their blood-stained claws at me like I just offended them in the worst way possible. I made a mental note to blame Navi for telling me to leave the forest as soon as I was healed. She expected me to fight them off, but I'm still sore and heavily outnumbered and inexperienced with fighting.

After managing to speak with the Princess, gawk at her attendant, save a tribe of Goron's from starvation, and rescue a snotty princess from a fish-god, I stood before the gates of Hyrule Castle once more. I was tired, dirty, beaten, bruised, and barely able to stand, let alone walk miles from Zora's Domain to point the gates of the Market.

The light from the sun seemed to die out the closer I got to that towering bridge, and as soon as I was an inch from jumping into the moat, the bridge is lowered quickly and I have a split second to avoid becoming a trampled pile of green clothing in the dirt. I jumped out of the way just as Impa and Zelda dash past me. Zelda through something my way, but it landed in the moat and I couldn't see what it was due to the lack of sunlight.

And that was when he showed up.

The second my eyes fixated on him, was the beginning of my hate. Ganondorf in all his glory sat on his mighty steed and cursed. He demanded I tell him which way Zelda and Impa had gone, but I refused. I'm suddenly on the ground, writhing in pain from a magic blast he sent my way. It all happened so fast, I had no time to react.

And then he was off. I lost consciousness after he left. When I awoke, Navi had got the item Zelda had thrown me last night, it was the Ocarina of Time she spoke about. I had a vision, she stood in that Temple of Time and taught me a song. With her last instructions, she left.

Gathering my little strength, I entered the towering church-like building and stood before the altar. I was in awe, at peace, and completely at home within this sanctuary. So quiet, so still...

By heart, I played the song and entered the passage that opened. And without even realizing it, my hands were on the hilt of that Master Sword and I pulled with all my power. My body froze to stone, and I felt my spirit ripped from me. For seven long years, I stood in the Sacred Realms last pure location, the Temple of Light. The only spot left untouched by Ganondorf's evil wind.

When I was released, my body had broken free of the stone imprisonment and I collapsed into a pair of soft, thin hands.

The red eye of Sheik, last of the Sheikah, stared right through my soul, as if to make sure I still remembered who I am. She explained what had happened, trying her hardest to disguise her voice as manly, but failing miserably. She spoke of my destiny, how I should start and where.

I stood, my legs feeling a bit weak, but nonetheless, capable of holding me straight. She watched me, arguing that I should rest a while before setting out. But the thought that I was sealed away by this all for a period of seven years gave me a drive to end this as soon as I could. I would not stop. She even stepped in front of me, only to be thrust aside. I was surprised at my own strength and so was she.

She must have been convinced I was ready, because she dared not step in my path since.

Through armies of ReDead and dungeons crawling to their core with unspeakable horrors, I fought and won. Granted, there were near death points throughout it all, but I prevailed.

Throughout it all, I've been bitten by ReDead, DeadHands, Gibdos, Tektites, Keese, Garu, Leevers, Deku Babas, and Lizafoes. I've been stabbed and hacked down by Stalfoes, Stalchilds, Iron Knuckles, Lizafoes, Gerudo warriors, Peahats, and my own dark side.

Yet I was standing when I drove the Master Sword as deep as I could through the skull of Ganon. I was standing tall and mightily when I drove the blade of the Master Sword into the pedestal of Time and sealed the Evil Realm away.

To think it would all end so suddenly. I was twenty years old when Ganon broke through the seal. The first thing he did was hunt me down, and the sages could not warn me in time. He suddenly appeared before me in a forest at the most northern reaches of the Hylian world and stabbed me through my heart. He gloated about it, casting a dark spell that allowed him to manhandle my soul.

He drug me back to Hyrule and made me watch as he killed my sister, he made me watch him kill the love of my life, the young Impa, and he made me watch the massacre of every last Hylian ever born.

But while he was busy with the destruction he was causing, I called on Farore, the Goddess of Courage, and pleaded to her to stop this. She and her sister's Nayru and Din, unleashed a torrential storm on the land of Hyrule that would wash away the evil that Ganon had unleashed, wash away the blood he spilled and wash him away with it all.

What few survivors were left had been ordered by the three divine to seek refuge to the high mountains. But most of them did not make it.

My spirit, cursed to purgatory until a new chosen one was born for me to inhabit, wandered the ocean floors that was once my homeland. I witnessed the decay of the dead take place. I had to watch as time slowly undid their bodies. Men, women, and children.

The one that struck me the hardest, was the little Hylian girl still clutching her baby boy near the castle of Hyrule. She reminded me so much of my mother. Unable to hold my spirit back, I gave the girl a gentle shack. But she was dead, she would not respond.

There are many sayings that could represent this tragedy: hubris was the downfall of many kingdoms, a dropped defense is a hopeless one...

My pride over my victory was what had allowed this to happen. If I had never left to search for Navi, if I had never left for that Tournament, if I had never left to destroy an evil sword that consumed souls...Hyrule would not be buried under the sea, and half her people with it. Impa and Zelda would still be alive.

This is my shame. The shame of the Hero.


End file.
